Who is Ilja Dragunov?
#WXW16Karat is a week away and Ilja Dragunov officially got signed by NXT UK (WWE).
About time to talk about 'The Unbesiegbarzar' and his journey to become a top prospect in the business.
In late 2017 WXW produced a documentary on Dragunov. This will probably help a lot to understand Ilja's mindset:
At 5 years old, Ilja is now 25, he immigrated from Russia to Germany. Since then he needed to fight for everything, not just in the ring, but in life in general - and he fought and still fights hard.
His first documented fight happened in April 2012, when Dragunov wrestled for the GWF in a Multi-Men Tag Team Match. According to Dragunov he did not choose wrestling, wrestling had chosen him.
A year later Dragunov began wrestling for Westside-X-treme-Wrestling. Raising eyebrow with his pure intensitiy, Dragnuov was teamed with Svetlana Kalashnikova, who became his valet. The russian duo. The former rugby player also claims that he developed his character before joining WXW and even found his theme song by himself.
During a segment with Kalashnikova the word 'unbesiegbar' (german for invincible) dropped. This word lit a fire under Dragunov even more than ever before. It not only became his catchphrase, it became his lifestyle. No matter how good his opposition might be, hes UNBESIEGBAR and therefore can not be beaten. In the upcoming year Dragunov would develop one most the most brutal in-ring styles ever seen.
In 2013 Dragunov won the Mitteldeutschland Cup and the WXW Shotgun Title. In 2014 he won the GWF Next Step Title. Next Step would later turn into it's on promotion, for which he held their European Title during 2017 and early 2018.
Dragunov's career came to a hold in November 2013 when he broke his skull after a nasty fall.
After finally returning and another Shotgun Title victory in 2015, Dragunov joined Cerberus. A stable led by Adam Polak, including the likes of Robert Dreissker (The Avalanche), Julian Nero and later Dirty Dragan. Dragunov became a two-time WXW Tag Team Champion in 2015 and 2016 with them, but was always seen as the breakout-star of the group.
His rise did not stop there. After breaking away from Cerberus and turning babyface, Ilja Dragunov managed to win the 2017 edition of the 16 Carat Gold Tournament, the biggest wrestling tournament in history. The entire was build upon his feud with the group RISE and it's leader John Klinger, who Dragunov claims helped him to become even better with their constant clashes. When Klinger had Dragunov beaten in December 2017, Dragunov stepped away from wrestling. He spent time with his family and rumours surfaced that Ilja Dragunov had chosen family over wrestling, beause his wife gave birth to a boy named 'Konstantin', which got Dragunov into a new position in his life.
In the biggest crowd reaction to date in WXW, Dragunov returned to WXW for the World Title Match in March 2018. Dragunov had not chosen wrestling over his wrestling, but will fight to keep his wrestling career alive, but family will always be his priority.
Dragunov won the WXW Unified World Wrestling Championship that night and carried it until August, when he dropped it to Absolute Andy. The two engaged a war, clashing multiple times. In October 2018 Andy was believed to be injured, therefore Bobby Gunns and Dragunov fought to crown an Interim Champion, a title Dragunov won. Andy's injury was not as serious though and Andy returned to beat Dragunov for the title a month later.
Dragunov explains his motivation:
Since then Absolute Andy and Dragunov aswell as Bobby Gunns have been caught in an on and off war for the company's main title.
In September 2018 Dragunov also challenged WWE NXT UK Champion Pete Dunne for a WXW vs. PROGRESS Match at PROGRESS' 'Hello Wembley' show, the biggest show PROGRESS had ever done at the time. For this match Dragunov was flanked by WXW boss Christian Michael Jakobi in his final appearance before announcing a break due to burnout.
Ilja Dragunov is going to compete in this year's 16 Carat Gold Tournament and is facing Daisuke Sekimoto in the first round.
To see Dragunov live come to one of WXW's events, which you can find at wxw-wrestling.com
Wanna talk about Dragunov? Don't forget to tweet me @Walu2go
